Directory_and_Chronicle_1903 — Page 217

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TREATY BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES AND COREA

United States merchant vessels entering the ports of Chosen shall pay tonnage dues at the rate of five mace per ton, payable once in three months on each vessel, according to the Chinese calendar,

Art. VI.-—Subjects of Chosen who may visit the United States shall be per- mitted to reside and to rent premises, purchase land, or to construct residences or warehouses in all parts of the country. They shall be freely permitted to pursue their various callings and avocations, and to traffic in all merchandise, raw and manufactured, that is not declared contraband by law. Citizens of the United States who may resort to the ports of Chosen which are open to foreign commerce shall be permitted to reside at such open ports within the limits of the concession and to lease buildings or land, or to construct residences or warehouses therein. They shall be freely permitted to pursue their various callings and avocations within the limits of the ports and to traffic in all merchandise, raw and manufactured, that is not declared contraband by law.

No coercion or intimidation in the acquisition of land or buildings shall be permitted, and the land rent as fixed by the authorities of Chosen shall be paid. And it is expressly agreed that land so acquired in the open ports of Chosen still remains an integral part of the kingdom, and that all rights of jurisdiction over persons and property within such areas remain vested in the authorities of Chosen, except in so far as such rights have been expressly relinquished by this treaty.

American citizens are not permitted either to transport foreign imports to the interior for sale or to proceed thither to purchase native produce, nor are they per- mitted to transport native produce from one open port to another open port.

Violation of this rule will subject such merchandise to confiscation, and the merchants offending will be handed over to the consular authorities to be dealt with.

Art. VII.-The Governments of the United States and of Chosen mutually agree and undertake that subjects of Chosen shall not be permitted to import opium into any of the ports of the United States, and citizens of the United States shall not be permitted to import opium into any of the open ports of Chosen, to transport it from one open port to another open port, or traffic in it in Chosen. This absolute prohibition, which extends to vessels owned by the citizens or subjects of either Power, to foreign vessels employed by them, and to vessels owned by the citizens or subjects of either Power and employed by other persons for the transportation of opium, shall be enforced by appropriate legislation on the part of the United States and of Chosen, and offenders against it shall be severely pum-hed.

Art. VII. Whenever the Government of Chosen shall have reason to appre- hend a scarcity of food within the limits of the kingdom, His Majesty may by decree temporarily prohibit the export of all breadstuffs, and such decree shall be binding upon all citizens of the United States in Chosen upon due notice having been given them by the authorities of Chosen through the proper officers of the United States; but it is to be understood that the exportation of rice and breadstuffs of every description is prohibited from the open port of Yin-Chuen.

Chosen having of old prohibited the exportation of red ginseng, if citizens of the United States clandestinely purchase it for export it shall be confiscated and the offenders punished.

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Art. IX. Purchase of cannon, small arms, swords, gunpowder, shot, and all munitions of war is permitted only to officials of the Government of Chosen, and they may be imported by citizens of the United States only under written permit from the authorities of Chosen. If these articles are clandestinely imported they shall be confiscated and the offending party shall be punished.

Art. X.-The officers and people of either nation residing in the other shall have the right to employ natives for all kinds of lawful work.

Should, however, subjects of Chosen, guilty of violation of the laws of the king- dom, or against whom any action has been brought, conceal themselves in the residences or warehouses of United States citizens or on board United States merchant vessels, the Consular authorities of the United States, on being notified of the fact by the local authorities, will either permit the latter to despatch constables to make

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